Much of the history of sci-fi movies has been an easy target of ridicule once their predictions of fashion and lifestyle fail to materialize. Many have poked fun at the 1976 film Logan's Run because the filmmaker's decided, immediately following the rise of malls in America, to set their story in one. Now, in 2010, we are not yet living in malls... although some people undoubtedly do spend far too much time in these cathedrals of consumerism!
But as the poor remain poor and the tiny population of the wealthy dominate the geography of the planet relaxing in leisure landscapes of tennis courts, golf courses and corporate parks, human living space will continue to be a hugely controlled commodity. And as the population continues to grow at alarming rates... What keeps us from living underground?
Besides the obvious issues of practical functionality, it seems likely to me that this vast reservoir of real estate will become commodified and the poor will eventually be forced out of the ballooning "developed regions" of the rich and into apartments underground.
Gradually even the wealthy will inhabit this as yet untapped playground, for it will certainly become one as they explore it. The wealthy won't arrive however until screen technology is cheap enough to give them fabulous recorded views of natural landscapes out their "windows"... it'll be screen savers on a whole other level.
Don't believe me?
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